Facts & Figures

Bouncing Back. U.S. tire builders, who cut prices 10% last spring, found their reductions premature. The record touring season last summer increased the demand for tires 10% above 1946. And the rise in labor and material costs nipped the profit margins of tire men. A month ago, General Tire & Rubber Co. announced a 7 1/2% price increase. This week, the Big Four--Firestone, Goodrich, Goodyear and U.S. Rubber--followed suit. Their boosts: from 5% to 8%.

Going Paramount's Way. Hollywood's independent producers have been frightened by the box-office slump and the new British movie tax. Six months ago, Frank Capra's Liberty Films sold out to Paramount Pictures (TIME, May 26). Last week Director Leo McCarey's Rainbow Productions, Inc. made a similar deal. McCarey got $1,000,000 worth of Paramount stock for his 50% interest; another $1,000,000 worth went to his associates, among them Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Hal Roach Jr. Paramount gets the services of McCarey and Norman Z. McLeod plus the future income from Rainbow films, including Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's.

Back Again. The Railway Express Agency, which got a $61 million annual rate increase in September, last week filed a request with the Interstate Commerce Commission for another 10% raise. The second increase, said officials, was needed to meet a recent 15 1/2% wage increase.

Freedom to Fail. In Geneva, the International Civil Aviation Organization failed to conclude a multilateral civil aviation agreement. The U.S., United Kingdom and France wanted to include the "fifth freedom," i.e., the right of an airline to carry traffic between two nations other than its own. Smaller countries, led by Mexico, Canada and Portugal, defeated the proposal, fearing that the big nations would monopolize international traffic.

Healthy Hellcats. In the sick aircraft industry, Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. was hale & hearty. Grumman, whose wartime Hellcat and Avenger designs and production earned it fat postwar Navy orders, declared a $1.50 dividend, bringing its 1947 total to $3 v. $2 in 1946.

Bell Bows Out. James Ford Bell, 68, the "Dean of American Millers," bowed out as chairman of giant General Mills, Inc. (Gold Medal Flour, Wheaties, etc.). Bell helped found the company in 1928, was its president until he became chairman in 1934, steadily built the company sales to a peak of $379,032,427 in its last fiscal year. President Harry Bullis, 57, will move up into the chairmanship, and Executive Vice President Leslie N. Perrin, 61, will become president. "The old man" will keep in touch as chairman of a newly formed "committee on finance and technological progress."

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